December 30, 2004

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are using carbon nanotubes to sense single molecules, and are tapping the way carbon nanotubes give off near-infrared light in order to read what the sensors have detected.

The sensors could eventually be used to monitor biochemical changes in biological fluids and tissue in real time.

December 29, 2004

Researchers at Oregon State University and Hewlett Packard have reported a first example of a new class of thin-film materials, called amorphous heavy-metal cation multicomponent oxides, that could be used to make transparent transistors that are inexpensive, stable, and environmentally benign.

This could lead to new industries and a broad range of new consumer products, scientists say.

The new material combines the characteristics of different elements to give… read more

December 29, 2004

China is rolling out the first network based on Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) technology, a major component of the next-generation Internet.

Officials claim top transmission speeds of 2.5 to 10 gigabits per second, with a trial connecting schools in Beijing and Tianjin reaching 40 gigabits per second. Coverage is expected to expand to 100 universities in the near future.

December 29, 2004

New research by Bruce Lahn, an assistant professor of human genetics at the University of Chicago, suggests that humans evolved their cognitive abilities not owing to a few sporadic and accidental genetic mutations but rather from an enormous number of mutations in a short period of time, acquired though an intense selection process favoring complex cognitive abilities.

Lahn suggests that the development of human society may be the reason.… read more

December 28, 2004

Longer and more intense physical activity may help people maintain their cognitive skills as they age, according to a 10-year study of elderly men published in the December 28, 2004 issue of Neurology.

The study showed that over 10 years the cognitive decline in men who had reduced their daily physical activity by an hour or more was 2.6 times greater than the decline in men who maintained their… read more

December 28, 2004

Mitsuo Kawato, director of the ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories in Kyoto, Japan, believes that experiments on humanoid robots can provide simplified models of what certain groups of neurons in the brain are doing.

Then, using advanced imaging techniques, he looks at whether brain cells in monkeys and humans accord with the models.

By combining magnetic-resonance imaging, which offers millimeter-level resolution, with electrical and magnetic recording techniques, which resolve… read more

December 28, 2004

Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have compiled the first atlas showing the locations of crucial gene regulators, or switches that determine how different parts of the brain develop — and, in some cases, develop abnormally or malfunction.

The scientists say the map will accelerate research on brain tumors and neurological diseases that result from mutations in these switch genes, called “transcription factors.”

December 27, 2004

Emerging trends in medicine, biotechnology and nanotechnology open a realistic path to immortality, says Ray Kurzweil in his new book, “Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever,” co-authored by Terry Grossman, M.D.

December 27, 2004

Objective reality may owe its existence to a “quantum darwinisn” process that promotes certain quantum states by natural selection, say physicists at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Information about these states proliferates and gets imprinted on the environment. So observers coming along and looking at the environment in order to get a picture of the world tend to see the same “preferred” states.

December 23, 2004

A team led by Johns Hopkins scientists has found the first clear evidence that the process behind the human immune system’s remarkable ability to recognize and respond to a million different proteins might have originated from “jumping genes,” whose only apparent function is to jump around in genetic material.

December 23, 2004

University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers have reported the first direct evidence that a grape-seed extract affects specific proteins in healthy brains in ways that may protect against future age-related dementia.

Grape-seed-extract supplements are thought to have health benefits due to their high content of polyphenolic compounds, which have been shown to have high antioxidant activity

December 23, 2004

A new, lower-cost mechanism may replace Braille for graphical tactile displays for the blind.

The displays use metallic films featuring various shape-memory alloys (SMAs) produced layer by layer on silicon wafers using thin-film technology. Display pixels are generated when the SMA metallic film is deformed by heat pulses. The movement of the films is then transferred to the touch panel via plastic pins that can be detected by the… read more

December 23, 2004

Radiation from cellular phones harms the DNA in human cells, according to an extensive, pan-European laboratory study.

The researchers found that levels of radiation equivalent to those from a phone prompted breaks in individual strands of DNA in a variety of human cells. These types of damage have been linked with cancer. The level of injury increased with the intensity of radiation and the length of exposure.

December 23, 2004

A reproductive research team could have an answer to the ethical and scientific conundrums presented by the pursuit of stem-cell treatments: remove one cell from a very early embryo that has developed to about eight cells (called a morula), and derive stem cells from that single cell.

The embryo would still have the potential to develop into a human if implanted into a womb.